Mandala South Asian Performing Arts Presents Annual Mandala Makers Festival, September 5-7, 2025
Chicago’s Mandala South Asian Performing Arts continues celebrating 10 years of connecting audiences with the vibrancy, flavors, and colors of the performing arts traditions of South Asia, with the presentation of its seventh Mandala Makers Festival. This annual platform for supporting multidisciplinary South Asian performing artists takes place September 5–7 at the Athenaeum Center for Thought and Culture, 2936 N. Southport Avenue, Chicago.
The Mandala Makers Festival holds space for artists to progress and challenge traditions of the South Asian diaspora. This year’s festival programs will include classical and contemporary dance; classical, folk, and contemporary music; Bollywood dance; and, for the first time, EDM. Major funding for the Mandala Makers Festival is provided by the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation.
“As a new generation of the South Asian diasporic population matures in the U.S., this year’s Mandala Makers Festival reflects on the aesthetic and creativity of these artists and the audience,” said Artistic Director Pranita Nayar. “The festival reveals how they honor the traditions they were born into and new works they are making as they encounter new cultural, social, and global influences.”
Participating artists offer a range of genres that celebrate tradition and the next generation of South Asian-influenced performing arts: dance performers Mandala Ensemble, Aikyam, Anindita Anaam and Shreevidya, and RVD Academy; DJs and EDM producers Deadstream, G-Tam, Atish Mehta, Nandu, Saqib, and Jimmy Singh; musical performers Chicago Jamrock Collective, Ochin Pakhi, Rini, and Nate Torrence-American Alghoza.
Additional festival information is available at mandalaarts.org/events/mandala-makers-festival-copy/. To reserve free performance tickets or purchase dance party tickets, visit eventcombo.com/e/mandala-makers-festival-2025-75550.
